For many years, showers have been an integral part of one's personal cleanliness and hygiene. When taking a shower, a flow of water pours over the person's body. Periodically the person may disperse soap, shampoo or other fluid over his or her body while in the stream of water. Thereafter, the fluid is rinsed. The water may readily be controlled for volume and temperature.
In recent years, showers have become a source of relaxation and grooming. This is in large part due to technical advances which allow for the mixing of soap, shampoo or other fluids into the flow of water under the control of the user. This eases the showering process. Further, a wide variety of other fluids, such as soothing lotions and fragrant oils, may be so mixed with the water which adds to the enjoyment of the shower as well as the grooming of the person's body. In addition, efforts have been made to readily couple such fluid-dispensing devices with the shower head for convenience of installation and use along with attractiveness of the device itself to render the bathroom more aesthetically appealing.
The patent literature documents the dissatisfaction of many people with known fluid-dispensing devices for shower heads. Consider, for example, patents directed to gravity feeding a single fluid into a shower head as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,404 to Vicari; U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,203 to Skillings; U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,541 to Mercier; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,100 to Karp; U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,083 to Meares and U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,095 to Pronk. Gravity feeding fluids to a shower head from one of a plurality of sources is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,352 to Kozlowski; U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,658 to Consaui; U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,206 to Chase and U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,266 to Queen.
Dispensing liquids to water of a shower head from a container beneath the shower head is disclosed is U.S. Pat. No. 3,207,445 to Court; U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,200 to Held and U.S. Pat. No. 3,539,111 to Johnson. Selectively dispensing fluids from one of a plurality of containers beneath the shower head is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,013 to Davison. Additionally, dispensing a first fluid into a second fluid flow in a non-shower application is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,928,576 to Kochner.
Lastly, German Pat, No. 28 17 043 to Mohn of 4/19/78 discloses shower dispensers of an elongated design. The flow of water is around the container while an operator controlled valve allows opening of the container so that its contents may be dispensed.
As illustrated by the great number of prior patents and commercial devices, efforts are continuously being made in an attempt to add fluids to the stream of shower water more efficiently, conveniently, reliably and economically. None of these previous efforts, however, provides the benefits attendant with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques and apparatus do not suggest the present inventive method steps and combination of component elements arranged and configured as disclosed herein.
The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, with the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a modest cost to manufacture and by employing only readily available materials. Additionally, the present invention constitutes an excellent skin management system which reduces the stripping of beneficial body oils while reducing water usage to three gallons per minute and precluding the backdraw flow of fluids into the community water system in the event of a system malfunction.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus to selectively introduce a fluid from a container into a stream of water flowing through a shower head. The apparatus comprises a housing having a nipple to which a shower head may be attached, a socket for receiving the nipple of a water supply pipe and a main water passageway therebetween. Support means are formed in the housing for a bottle containing a fluid to be fed therefrom. A supplemental passageway in the housing couples the support means and the main water passageway whereby fluid from the container may flow to the main water passageway by the venturi force created by the water flowing through the main passageway. Air hole means may be formed in the housing for the drawing of fluid-emulsifying ambient air into the flow of fluid in the supplemental passageway by venturi forces. Valve means are moveable between open and closed positions by the venturi forces to allow or preclude the feeding of fluid to the flow of water. User controlled means selectively allow the valve means to be coupled with the venturi forces.
It is also an object of the invention to selectively dispense fluids into a flow of shower water.
It is a further object of the invention to use venturi forces to effect a flow of fluid into a stream of shower water.
Lastly, it is an object of the invention to emulsify fluids being delivered to a user through a flow of shower water.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.